Former resident charged with killing mother
Former Connecticut resident Nathan Carman has been indicted by a Vermont grand jury with killing his mother in 2016 while they were on a fishing boat near Block Island, federal court records unsealed Tuesday show.
The nine-page indictment, first delivered on May 2, charges Carman with murder on the high seas in connection with the death of his mother, Linda Carman. It also charges him with multiple counts of fraud.
Carman, 28, now a resident of Vernon, Vt., was taken into custody Tuesday, federal officials said. The former Middletown resident remains detained and will be arraigned Wednesday in federal court in Vermont. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
In the indictment, federal prosecutors outlined a scheme in which Nathan Carman planned a fishing trip with his mother in September 2016 aboard their boat, the Chicken Pox.
“Nathan Carman planned to kill his mother on the trip. He also planned how he would report the sinking of the Chicken Pox and his mother's disappearance at sea as accidents,” the indictment read. Once at sea,
authorities wrote in the indictment, Nathan Carman killed his mother and sank the boat.
While not formally charging him with the 2013 death of his grandfather, John Chakalos, of Windsor, the indictment said Nathan Carman killed the man along with his mother as part of a nearly decadelong scheme to obtain money from his grandfather's
trust.
“As a central part of this scheme, Nathan Carman murdered John Chakalos and Linda Carman. He concocted cover stories to conceal his involvement in those killings,” the indictment read.
In 2013, Nathan Carman, while renting an apartment in Bloomfield, obtained a New Hampshire license and used that identification to
buy a Sig Sauer rifle in New Hampshire, the indictment read. With that rifle, he shot Chakalos twice as he slept in his Windsor home on Dec. 20 of that year, federal authorities wrote in the indictment.
To cover up his involvement, Nathan Carman got rid of his computer hard drive and the GPS in his truck the night Chakalos was shot, the indictment read.
Authorities claim Nathan Carman lied to investigators, denying he killed his grandfather, the indictment read. They alleged Nathan Carman also lied about where he was between 3 and 4 a.m. on the day Chakalos was killed and said he never purchased the Sig Sauer rifle used in the killing.
When Chakalos died, authorities said Carman received $550,000, including $150,000 from a college fund. In 2014, Carman moved to Vermont, spending much of the money between 2014 and 2016, the indictment read.
“By the fall of 2016, he was low on funds,” the indictment read.
Around 11 p.m. on Sept. 17, 2016, Nathan and Linda Carman left the Ram Point Marina in South Kingstown, R.I., on the Chicken Pox for a fishing trip, according to the indictment. At the time, Linda Carman believed she was returning at noon the next day.
Federal authorities wrote in the indictment that Nathan Carman made alterations to the boat, including “removing two forward bulkheads and removing trim tabs from the transom of the hull.”
When the boat did not return as planned the next day, the U.S. Coast Guard launched a search for the
Carmans that continued through Sept. 24, 2016. During that time, federal authorities said Nathan Carman hid from searchand-rescue teams.
He was eventually picked up by the Orient Lucky, a commercial ship, the indictment read. Once rescued, federal authorities allege in the indictment that Carman lied to the Coast Guard and law enforcement about what happened to his mother and the boat.
The following month, he filed an $85,000 insurance claim for the lost boat, again lying about what happened to his mother and the Chicken Pox, the indictment read.
The insurance company later denied the claim, and prevailed when Nathan Carman challenged the rejected in federal court in Rhode Island. During the trial, federal authorities alleged Carman provided false statements, the indictment read.
If convicted, the U.S. Attorney for Vermont's office said Nathan Carman faces life in prison.
The yearslong investigation was handled by the FBI, U.S. Coast Guard, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Windsor Police Department and Connecticut State Police, the U.S. Attorney's office said.